In Kyoto Snow
Pairing: Bokuto Koutarou/Kuroo Tetsurou Characters: Kuroo, Bokuto, Terushima, Oikawa, others as cameo roles Word Count: 2.7k Warnings: no warnings apply Summary: Kuroo’s a little too tired from moping about Bokuto to really enjoy his uni team’s outing for ramen. But things can change quickly.
For @hopipp for the @dailyhaikyuu secret santa event! I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it!
Read on AO3 here!
Kuroo mostly likes Christmas. He likes the decorations, and it hails a new year to be coming soon, which means he’s made it through another year of education, and will get money soon – not that he tends to get much nowadays. His parents tell him they’re helping him enough. His grandma will still slip him a little, though. He likes the fresh chill in the air, likes the snow, like the silence it produces, likes snowballs fights and memories of dragging Kenma out to play in it (and usually getting owned when it came to fort building, only to win himself back with aim).
He doesn’t really like all the couple-type stuff.
That’s only been quite recent, really. Only since he started rooming with Bokuto, and playing volleyball on the same team as him, and just- spending a lot more time with him.
Kyoto’s been laying it on pretty thick about what he should be buying his perfect partner. Which he doesn’t have. Where he should be going with his perfect partner. Which he doesn’t have.
The thing is, he’s pretty sure he’ll spend most of his Christmas with his perfect partner – but not in any kind of romance.
Right now, he’s sat right next to him. But they’re not alone, and it’s no kind of date. Because on Kuroo’s other side is Oikawa. On Bokuto’s other side is Futakichi, then Nakamura, and Kita. Across the table are Saito, Tanaka, Terushima and Honda. It’s boisterous, loud, and Kuroo, while normally enjoying this kind of thing, just wants to go home and mope with ice cream. No matter that it’s snowing outside, he’s got a big tub of chocolate brownie ice cream with fudge bits in that he’s been saving for a special occasion. Moping about Bokuto sounds like a perfect one.
However, good backstreet ramen will have to do. It’s easing his sorrows well enough, and nobody’s noticed he’s quieter than usual, because as long as he keeps stuffing his face with ramen, no one notices that he’s not opening his mouth to do anything other than that.
The lot of them are having an extended discussion about girlfriends, more specifically who wants to be whose boyfriend. As deep in this as Tetsurou is, he’s got nothing to add – he hasn’t really noticed any girls at all, and he never really does notice people in the way everyone else seems to unless he’s friends with them first. It’s a right pain at times, because since he’s already established a friendship, he doesn’t want it to get in the way. It hasn’t happened too much, but he’s lost middle school friends over his having to emotionally retreat because of new feelings, and a few from high school. The only person who’s found out so far has been Yaku, which lasted about three seconds after he found out and then realised it would not work at all, not as a romantic relationship. It had been more of an ideal than anything else, he thinks.
Although more than being annoyed he has nothing to contribute to this conversation – he wouldn’t really want to anyway, even if he felt like talking – he’s dreading anything Bokuto adds. Luckily, it hasn’t been anything. Yet. Bokuto can never stop himself from wading into any conversation, and glancing sideways, it doesn’t look like his rapidly emptying plate is going to hold his attention for too much longer.
Bokuto catches him looking, and grins with a menacing hint. Quick as a flash, he whips his chopsticks over to steal the egg from Tetsurou’s ramen, although equally as quick, Tetsurou defends it, anticipating the move.
“Awwww, man, but the egg is the best bit!” Bokuto whines. Tetsurou feels himself start to lose this fight, not having the energy to really win, but since what Bokuto said is true, he also can’t take that kind of thievery lying down.
“Yeah, that’s why I was saving it for last, idiot.” Tetsurou grouses, and turns away so he’s not affected by the pouting face Bokuto then makes. “Why didn’t you get one with an egg if you wanted one, airhead.”
Bokuto makes an exaggerated humph, and Tetsurou can, unfortunately, picture his face exactly even without looking. “But I already ate mine…” Yup, eyebrows raised in the middle, lips pouting, eyes wide in innocence as if it’s a reasonable request. In fairness, they do this all the time, sharing bits of food that they want from the other.
“Half,” Tetsurou concedes, suddenly aware that the table has gone quiet, “But I want a piece of meat in exchange.” He finally looks back at Bokuto, who nods profusely, grinning wildly. Tetsurou dutifully picks a piece of meat and starts to split his egg.
“You two are so married.” Terushima says, a proud tone to his voice. Tetsurou has never quite been able to get on with him off the court – probably his faintly predatory ways of trying to get women. Sadly with his looks, he’s more successful then he has any right to be. Tetsurou does his best to challenge the worst shit that comes out of his mouth. Sometimes, he even thinks it’s going in.
“No we’re not.” He defends tiredly, and deftly drops Bokuto’s half of the egg on his plate. It stays there for a mere fraction of a second before being hovered up.
“You really are, though. I could only dream of this level of marriage if I lived with Iwa-chan~” Oikawa states, overly pleased with himself. “Maybe if you didn’t go through girlfriends like water, he wouldn’t mind living with you?” Tetsurou says, and chews on the beef he traded Bokuto for. The rest of them laugh in Oikawa’s face. Oikawa just looks mock-offended. “I do not ‘go through them like water’, Tetsu-chan!” He replies indignantly, nose in the air. “Besides, that means nothing from someone who moves like ice.”
“Glaciers move actually, Oikawa. And what is outside falling? Frozen water. So ice.” Tetsurou takes a large mouthful of noodles to stop himself digging a further pit. Oikawa wears a smug smirk, as does most of the table. “So you’re saying you go through girls, Tetsu-chan? Then how come we don’t know about this?” Futakuchi chimes in.
“You can’t get a girlfriend Kuroo! What would happen to movie night?!” Bokuto shouts, and Tetsurou winces slightly at the volume. And that he’s really not helping at all. Dear lord, even if he was with someone, he wouldn’t tell this group, far too involved in other people’s business for their own good. They could gossip for the whole university, most of them.
He recognises he’s just in a bad mood at the moment, head full of thoughts of what he doesn’t have and yet wants. He gets on pretty well with most of them usually, but really, he shouldn’t have come out today.
“I think you mean, he can’t get a girlfriend because they all know he’s already married to you, Kou-chan.” Oikawa says, as though he’s speaking to a child.
Maybe Tetsurou is getting a cold. This banter is getting to him more than it normally would, a headache building behind his eyes, a sadness growing in his chest.
“What’s wrong with that?” Bokuto demands, disarming them all, like usual. Count on Bokuto to be unpredictable. Tetsurou can’t help but smile, especially when they all start spluttering. Honda rapidly changes the subject to their upcoming game, and Tetsurou chews slowly on his half of the egg, savouring it slowly. Bokuto leans in closer.
“You alright?” he asks, weirdly quiet. Tetsurou nods, which seems to sate Bokuto, but he doesn’t fully lean back out of his space, leaves their arms pressed up against each other. Tetsurou puts it down to the lack of space – he’s not sure if Bokuto had been impinging on Futakichi’s space before, but Oikawa keeps brushing him, certainly, so it seems likely. Now though, he just wants to fold into that touch, feeling tired and worn out, lectures and exams and emotions a heady mix equalling exhaustion.
He resists, but only just. He lasts another fifteen minutes, and decides since he’s not contributing nor wanting to, that he’s going to head home for sleep. The chair makes an irritatingly loud screech as he pushes it back, catching everyone’s attention, which was definitely not his intention. Sometimes, he thinks it’d be cool to be able to just leave without notifying everyone, and pop up again seemingly out of nowhere. Sadly, he’s yet to discover these powers, and so he murmurs an excuse he barely thinks about and heads out into the snowstorm.
Snow normally looks pretty, but not when it’s blowing in his face, and is being polluted by the slow stream of traffic trying to get home. Still, he throws his hat on and pulls his gloves on tightly, and braves the wind. It’s not as bad as it has been, but it’s still unpleasant to walk in, being careful of each step so not to slip, and remembering the direction he needs to go, too.
Bereft of other thoughts to wonder to, his mind returns as it usually does nowadays to Bokuto. He’d never denied or shown any protest about the comments of being married – was that weird for Bokuto? He doesn’t really know, considering he’s never seen anyone accuse Bokuto of being in a relationship he wasn’t in. Maybe he just didn’t get it, but then, how blunt to you have to get? He’s dumb, but not that dumb. He’s way better with people than he is with studies, anyway, not that that’s saying too much, in any case.
The only thing he had protested was the idea of Tetsurou having a girlfriend he didn’t know about. Or just, a girlfriend at all.
Tetsurou sighs heavily. Bokuto, king of mixed signals. What did he even mean by that? Just worried about movie night? Or worried about losing him in total? Who even knows. Bokuto is a mystery, even to himself it sometimes seems.
Tetsurou really, really needs to get control of this thing, right now. He’s got to package it up and put it away and just move on. Ship it off to Okinawa or something. It’s pissing him off how it just won’t die, no matter how many times he walks in on Bokuto taking a shit, or making the kitchen messy, or finds him creeping over to sleep in his bed at 3am ‘cause he had a nightmare. Living with someone should be the final straw, not making him fonder. It’s ridiculous. Tetsurou is actually torn between being desperate to live with Bokuto as long as possible and wanting to move out right now to save himself mid-fall.
Not, with Bokuto on the team, that it would stop his fall at all. At this point, he thinks he’s irredeemable. This thing is irretrievable, he’s just gotta wait until he hits the bottom so he can start swimming upwards again. This, he thinks morosely, could take a long time.
“Kuroo!” Tetsurou stomps across a crossing and starts distracting himself thinking about the ice cream he’s got at home. Now he’s cold, it feels less appealing, but equally, he has secret hot chocolate sachets too, and he’s been meaning to try the caramel one. He’s heard it’s not too sweet, just a little bitter, and if that isn’t a mood right now.
“Kuroo!” He blinks, feeling like he heard a shout, and then thinking that it couldn’t have been to do with him. With the wind in his ears, he’s probably just hearing things. He makes his plans, to get a hot chocolate, pile as many blankets as he can physically get on his body and stare into the snow. Maybe listen to music. He’d listen to lecture notes but he knows none of it would go in right now-
A hand on his arm jolts him right out of fantasy land and back to reality. He twists, all ready to fight back and give whoever caught him some stern words, but then his eyes land on an achingly familiar face smiling at him, coat only half done up and owl hat hastily shrugged on. His anger melts into a pleasant confusion.
“Oh, hey Bokuto-” he halts as Bokuto gets closer, and tries to decipher what this is – probably a hug, but then it’s the wrong angle, and their faces are going to collide, he probably overbalanced, he’s done that before-
But then their lips touch and any accidental reasoning goes out of Tetsurou’s mind. It’s too soft, too gentle to be a fall, and it doesn’t end when it should, if it was an accident. Tetsurou, in his tired tired mind, presses back, because he’ll think about this later, the fact that-
That Bokuto is- kissing him. In the middle of the pavement in Kyoto. He’s cradling Tetsurou’s face now and he’s going for the kiss with the exact vigour Tetsurou would expect from Bokuto.
Bokuto is kissing him.
Bokuto. Is kissing him. In real life.
No, that thought is so far from what he expected, it stuns him out of it, hovering backwards. Bokuto follows him briefly, then seems to realise he means to stop it. His thoughts are racing too much with why to fully enjoy it right now, which he may well hate himself for later.
“Uh,” Bokuto starts. “I. didn’t mean to. Um. Ha?” he tries. Tetsurou just gives him a blank stare, borne of having not a single fucking clue what just happened. Bokuto, only stubborn when it comes to volleyball, caves easily. “You just looked so cute, I had to…” he’s pouting again. Tetsurou takes a moment to attempt to think about it and comes up with the mental equivalent of a blue screen of doom. Error 404, Kuroo Tetsurou’s brain is not found.
“What?” is all he can think of to say. Bokuto backs off a bit, which does help with the thought processes, not having him approximately two inches away.
“I was only followin’ ya ‘cause you didn’t look alright, but then you turned around and I just been wantin’ to do that for ages, I couldn’t stop myself…”
It takes an embarrassingly long time for the meaning of that to sink in. He’s still restarting.
“Whaddya mean, ages?!” Tetsurou yelps. Bokuto puffs his cheeks out, crosses his arms and looks off to one side. “I was sending so many signs, I can’t believe you didn’t catch on. I don’t even get that many nightmares!” Bokuto protests, indignant. The implication of which just making Tetsurou splutter, face going ever redder.
All this time? How could he not have seen it? But then, was he expecting Bokuto to just outright tell him?
Although… “Geez, act more disgusted, will you. I’ll go sleep at Teru’s, I get it.” Bokuto huffs, and Tetsurou can’t tell if he’s joking or not. Still, he’s present enough of mind not to let this one go. Bokuto will be a pain if he’s moping, and especially if it’s Tetsurou’s fault and for absolutely no reason because Tetsurou literally dreams of this about every other night.
Tetsurou practically slaps his hands around Bokuto’s face, and wants to laugh at the pufferfish-like expression it induces. “Don’t you dare go sleep at that womaniser’s house.” Bokuto nods. “I’m shocked. But behind that I’m exultant. Believe me.” “Exulta-?!” Bokuto starts. Tetsurou will not pretend he’s any type of skilled at kissing. It’s probably awful, technically, considering there have been about five people in his life where he’s considered kissing them would not be repulsive, but if there are marks for effort, he’s sure to be picking them up. Bokuto seems to respond, anyway, which is usually a pretty good indicator. He’s awful at lying.
When they separate, Tetsurou grins at him. “Exultant: joyous, triumphant, ecstatic, the happiest this guy has ever felt.” “Psssh. Show off.” Bokuto says, only sounding incredibly fond. Tetsurou’s heart feels like it swells, like he can barely speak. “A show off with hot chocolate and an open bed back at home, though.”
Bokuto grins so wide, Tetsurou thinks it must hurt. “Let’s go, then! What you waitin’ for!”
Levity of heart, he thinks, is a wonderful thing. He feels like laughing forever. “You, dumbass. Let’s go.”
And when they leave, it’s with hands entwined. Tetsurou would have it no other way.
